How to revamp old kitchen cabinets?

[joddes]

hi, we are moving into a house and the kitchen needs an overhaul. The outsides cabinets are ok its the inside. It's either partial or chipboard with the old contact put over the top. It's dark and looks horrible. How do I make it white and fresh without costing a fortune I don't have any pics of the inside sorry

 

[EricL]

Hi @joddes 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's wonderful to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your question about your kitchen cabinet.

You could continue to use contact to give it a nice uniform finish. Another option is to remove the contact and use paint such as Dulux 1L PRECISION Maximum Strength Adhesion Primer White. This primer has excellent adhesion and can even go over laminate surfaces. 

It will be necessary to sand the inside of the cabinets so that you get a good surface to paint. 

I suggest having a look at these discussions:

• How to paint laminate kitchen cabinets? by @Gekman (the techniques used are applicable to the inside of the cabinets)
   
• How to paint laminate shelves? by @Loulou2 
   
• How to renovate laminate cupboards and rippled bench? by @Jodes01

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[Jason]

Hi @joddes,

Let me also extend a very warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. We're looking forward to seeing how you can make your mark on your new home.

I would encourage you to check out the articles 10 kitchens transformed with paint and our Top 10 most popular kitchen projects for inspiration.

Hope you get lots of great ideas.

Jason

[Tyro]

Hi @joddes 

If the house is a rental, I'd go the super cheap way and hide them by covering them with paper!  I went for white thick craft paper.  Got it from either Kmart or Officeworks. Bunnings has the brown paper.  Join a couple of sheets lengthwise.  Pull out the shelf. Cut the paper to fit the width but overhang the front and back edges.  Glue onto the underside, front and back.  Put some weights on until dried.  Then I used Bear 50mm x 10m Silver Multipuurpose Gaffer Tape to cover the ends of the paper.  The tape has stronger adhesion than other tapes and bonds to the shelf.  

Good luck!